>There is surely hardly a jazz musician who hasn't dreamt at least once in his life of a band which he could put together instrumentally as his fancy takes him' with which he would have toured successfully' and - last but not least - have recorded at least one CD. Sometimes such an idea has to remain a dream - for various reasons. But - and jazz history gives us here numerous examples - there are also those fortuitous moments in which the conception of an ideal team of musicians and a programme tailor-made for that team are realized.

That's what happened in the case of the initiator of the CD presented here, Nico Gastreich, who was able to fulfil a long-kept dream. The selection of his colleagues was of course no stab in the dark - all the musicians know each other through their participation in many performances in different groups, and all of them are united by their jazz- musical creed in the spirit of Duke Ellington:It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing.<